World of Warcraft

Share.

A look at progress--and open beta nuggets!

By Tom McNamara

In the world of MMOs this fall, there's EverQuest II, WoW and...everything else. Sure, there are several other projects I could rattle off, but you can't beat the franchise recognition of Sony Online and Blizzard. Many gamers write off MMOs without a second glance, and the industry, on the whole, hasn't done much to dispel the impression of the half-baked launch. Not to name any names, but we've seen debilitating instability, buzz-killing exploits and bugs, overpowering overnight gameplay balance adjustments, and a vicious sink-or-swim financial model that perhaps serves as a microcosm of the industry at large. You have to make a big splash and draw a lot people in quickly, or your MMO will end up in the digital obituaries with so many others who have come and gone before. We've seen a few high-profile titles get axed, others slipping under the radar, and yet others limping along after stumbling out the door.

It is in this battlefield that Blizzard has decided to launch its first MMO. In the competitive world of computer and video games, they've taken the plunge into the thorniest den. Thankfully, they have a (well-deserved) reputation for quality and for post-launch support. Sure, Diablo II had those Battle.net ladders that a dedicated player could reach the top of in a matter of days (a design element that seems to have worked its way into WoW, to a lesser extent), but you can't ignore their work.

Blizz is taking their same dedication to WoW with an extensive closed beta test that's only now winding down. Including the closed alpha, this thing has been in live testing for about a year now, maybe longer. To be fair, they're in a unique position, with lots of money in the bank, lots of talented people on staff, and a near-garantee that whatever they produce will make more money. This keeps the publishers off a developer's back, so that the dev can just do what they do instead of racing from one milestone to another before the end of the financial quarter.

Although this is Blizzard's first MMO, you can tell within the first five minutes of play that they've taken a lot of notes, and likely played a lot of MMOs themselves. The amount of "timesink" is fantastically low. Unlike other MMOs I could name, it doesn't take you half an hour to group up and get to your quest location, where you will chop at sewer rat at point blank range with a sword for five solid minutes until it actually dies.

You won't be almost dead after every one-on-one monster encounter and have to sit down and stare at the screen for five minutes while you slowly, slowly, slowly regenerate your health and/or mana. Your group won't be decimated by a surprise encounter with a Hellbeast of Pointy Death. You won't lose your items or experience points when you die (although you can opt to be resurrected at a graveyard for an approximate 10% hit). Travel is pretty fast, with flying transport, underground trains, boats, and your own two feet. Certain player classes can also morph for faster ground travel, and every class can buy a mount.

So downtime is low, the game has the Blizzard polish, even though it's still in beta. What's next? Well, there's that open beta I mentioned earlier, which we're supposed to be seeing within days. The devs expect it last two to three weeks, and many more servers will be available to support the (presumably) huge numbers of people who will be flocking to this one like crazy. An open beta player won't have access to all the content, however--only one or two raids, but there will be PvP as well as "care bear" servers. Hunter and Paladin talents will be in by the time the open beta launches, so you can use that as a marker for the open beta date.

Since Blizzard is very intent on getting the game out before the end of the year, there will probably be a fast turnaround between open beta and commercial launch. But I can tell you that, unlike many other MMOs in beta phase, WoW is butter-smooth, with only the sheer number of players being the open question when it comes to holding things together. Nothing will hurt your connection like having hundreds of other players standing around you, in general. However, since Valve has done an impressive job of providing Steam enough bandwidth, we're pretty confident that Blizzard and Vivendi will be able to provide a fat enough pipe to keep people happy.

Content-wise, there are very few glitches or known exploits. There's the constant class balancing, but it looks like that's unavoidable in this genre. The warlock, for example, could at one time channel health from a target without being interrupted by an attack. Then they removed that. Then they put a hybrid system in. The paladin used to be able to cast powerful "seals" on himself (temporary ability boosts) in addition to "auras" that act as permanent spells, like a ward. Then some popular seals were changed to auras, which isn't so fun since you can only have one aura active at a time. There were also some bugs with the Hunter pet, and full-screen bloom has been (in my opinion) oddly controversial. All in all, though, the level of complaint and general yelling is relatively quiet on the message boards. It seems like too many people are just playing and having fun to join in the rancor so common to other MMOs.

I have to save the majority of my opinion of WoW for the actual review, but you can probably tell from my tone here that I kinda like it. You'll be able to decide for yourself pretty soon, with the open beta, if you missed the stress test earlier. After all, it's just one man's opinion.